Leaders delay hearing on enterprise center

HUNTERSVILLE – A 12,000-square-foot enterprise center sparked plenty of discussion among residents at the town board’s Dec. 2 meeting.

The board’s public hearing on a rezoning request by One More Neighborhood attracted residents who wanted to speak out against the enterprise center concept at Cimarron and McCoy roads.

The Huntington Green Enterprise Center – the site of which is currently a vacant lot – would include an auto repair bay, a thrift shop, a café and a coin laundry, One More Neighborhood’s Earl Runcan said. The center plans to benefit residents in and out of Huntington Green while providing 12 to 15 training-level jobs for those in need of work.

Some residents weren’t sold on the idea. Neither was commissioner Danny Phillips, who voiced concerns that there wouldn’t be adequate parking to sustain the businesses, which Runcan said would be there to “help the community first, and generate profit second.”

Resident Mike Clarke said the concept was good, but unlikely to work at the site.

“I appreciate what they’re trying to do there, but it’s just not right there,” he said. “It’ll be a vacant building in two years if it happens.”

Other residents said the traffic generated from extra businesses, plus concerns about compatibility with the 2030 plan, rendered the concept a tough sell.

Commissioners voted to continue the public hearing until April 7, to give Runcan time to address concerns.

The town board also conducted a public hearing to modify development densities to allow for greater flexibility with development. The zoning ordinances would go back to their old terms, petitioner Alex Barnette said.

Current ordinances constrict lots to no less than half an acre in size, with the average lot being three-quarters of an acre. Lots must also be 85- to 100-feet wide, but Barnette's petition would change the lot sizes to average 0.28 acres with none below 0.23 acres. They would average 75 feet in width excluding cul-de-sac lots, with none thinner than 60 feet.

Barnette said his parents’ lifelong goal of maintaining farmland without developing it helped motivate him to seek adjustments to zoning.